Brian Johnson

Episode 53: A Handshake Deal with the Universe

“You know deep inside you that
you will never be fully satisfied until you have anchored yourself in
your Zone of Genius. To do less would be to hold back, and long ago
you made a handshake deal with the universe that you wouldn’t do
that. The seductive comforts of success, though, can lull us into
accepting the status quo. In that state of comfort, it’s easy to
forget the deal you made with the universe to use yourself fully.”
~ Gay Hendricks from The
Big Leap

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Transcript

A Handshake Deal with the Universe

“You know deep inside you that
you will never be fully satisfied until you have anchored yourself in
your Zone of Genius. To do less would be to hold back, and long ago
you made a handshake deal with the universe that you wouldn’t do
that. The seductive comforts of success, though, can lull us into
accepting the status quo. In that state of comfort, it’s easy to
forget the deal you made with the universe to use yourself fully.”
~ Gay Hendricks from The
Big Leap

I love that. In case you might’ve tried to forget (don’t
worry, we can try as much as we want, but we can never
actually forget... :), you made a handshake deal with the universe.
It was a very simple deal. You committed to not holding back--to
fully expressing yourself in this precious life of yours. :)

Acorns have an oak tree to become. Kittens have a cat to become.
You? You have a radiant human being fully expressing your gifts to
become. :)

In his classic book, The
Courage to Create, Rollo May puts it this way: “The
acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is
necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of
instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But
a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his
or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the
multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions
require courage.”

While Abraham Maslow (see Notes)
tells us: “Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets
must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves.
What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their
own nature. This need we may call self-actualization... It refers to
man’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him
to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything
one is capable of becoming.”

If there’s ONE theme to these Notes it’s to remind you of your
highest potential and to inspire and empower you to GO FOR IT.

Gotta love that majestic handshake deal you made with the
universe, eh?